পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড).pdf/৭০৬

678 ংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড sending newspaper reporters to India and are organizing dissemination of information in Australia in support of Bangladesh. I would close this very brief report with reference to an appeal that was signed by more than 400 academicians and other professional men and politicians. Fred Kvans Britain Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is true that I am a Member of Parliament from the United Kingdom-a Socialist Member-but I would like to emphasize that I am not here as a Member of Parliament. I am glad that this is a non-official Conference. I am here as a representation of the Bangladesh organisation in my own small part of Great Britain, a very small part of it known as Wales. It should be, I think, known in the world, in your country and in many other countries in the developing world because Wales is known for its hospitality. It is known for so many other things. There is complete absence of racialism. It is a country which I must say is almost a classless country. The people there are also conscious of their colonial history. It is a country which is known for its distinguished culture all over the world. It is known for its music also. We have formed in Wales a Bangladesh Organisation which includes all the political parties in Wales and incidentally we have a nationalist party in Wales. The aim of this party is to obtain separation from England. I am a socialist and the freedom and equality of man to me are indivisible as world peace is indivisible. There is a great tragedy in Bangladesh today. I tried sometimes to understand the psychology of this. The scale of the tragedy is so immense that the people there cannot dare to think of it. I have watched some of the scenes in East Bengal or East Pakistan. Sometimes their emotions are so worn away that there is lesser and lesser reaction. We must face the facts. We must awaken the conscience of the people in the world and certainly in my own country every determined effort will be made to do it. I can only speak for my own country from this rostrum. As you know, the British have always been insular, not only geographically but possibly because of geography in some other things too, about the rest of the world, Because of this insularity it is often very difficult to get across ideas to the general public in my country with such force that they will feel driven to act. But what the British Government has done is to condemn in quite unequivocal terms all that has been happening-I mean the great tragedy in Bangladesh. We have had the Parliamentary delegations like the one led by my colleague Mr. Arthur Bottomley, You recently have had a visit from another colleague of mine Mr. Peter Shore. We have also passed in the House of Commons a resolution like the one you passed early this morning calling for the release of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the interest of national justice and for the recognition of an Independent Bangladesh. All these are general steps and my own party could not press for more in the House of Commons. There seems to have been some difficulty in making declarations of this kind. A settlement of this terrible problem can only be brought about with the cooperation of the people of Bangladesh. As you know only a couple of days ago Mr.